Christmas toys: a rethink on pink?

Is this the end of the road for the Disney princess? Photograph: Alamy

Rejoice, feminists everywhere. Ding dong, the wicked pink princess is dead. Well, not quite. But almost. This week the campaign group Pink Stinks launched its conclusions a year on from its "anti-pink" crusade against the Early Learning Centre (ELC). It reports – with cautious optimism – that the pink tide seems to be receding in this year's Christmas catalogue.

At the same time, even more unbelievably, reports come from Disney that it is pulling the plug on the animated princess production line. By the age of five, apparently, little girls are now bored of tiaras and frilly dresses. The end of the road for the Disney princess? And fewer pink plastic items and boy-specific sets of armour in our stores? Surely not. Or is this a sign that pester power is finally being replaced by parent power? Or that a new movement calling itself "feminist parenting" is enjoying some success?

Abi Moore, co-founder of Pink Stinks, says her organisation has been inundated with messages from parents all over the world. "Our campaign last year was covered in 43 countries. We are constantly being asked by parents, 'What can we do?'" Parents of girls and boys alike are sick of the marketing messages and, especially, the gender assumptions children are forced to lap up.

Abi runs Pink Stinks with her twin sister Emma: Abi has boys aged eight and four, and Emma has girls the same age. Last year they criticised ELC's pink obsession, which went as far as producing a globe of the world in neon pink and a dazzling array of gender-specific dress-up costumes.

A year on they see a small but significant improvement in the toy landscape: "There are now more girls than boys in the costume section, with girls dressed as policewomen or doctors. There's a bigger mix, which we think is great. The pink globe is not pictured in the catalogue, although it's still available. The Early Learning Centre will never admit it has made any changes to its catalogue but we are going to claim a little victory."

A spokesman for Mothercare, which owns ELC, said: "The Early Learning Centre believes in helping children to be happy and confident individuals. We consistently offer a huge selection of toys to suit all needs and to help children be all they can be."

In the US, Disney meanwhile has said it is not planning any further animated fairy tales. In production instead is a version of Winnie the Pooh and a new video game character, both designed to appeal across genders.

So are parents' views finally being heard by the marketing bods? Many,including Pink Stinks, openly or loosely align themselves with "feminist parenting". In the UK there is an online campaigning organisation called CRAP! which stands for Child Rearing Against Patriarchy. In the US there are hundreds of feminist parenting blogs such as "Raising My Boychick" ("parenting a presumably straight white male"), "Feminist Dad" (although he says "my daughter LOVES Disney") and "She Has My Eyes" ("anti-bigotry and anti-bullshit parenting").

The group Mothers for Women's Lib holds an online Carnival of Feminist Parenting. Many of its fans boast of having a "family feminist mission statement", presumably stuck on the fridge door. Must get one of those.

"I have attended a lot of events recently where I've been struck by how much people want to talk about feminist parenting and consumerism," says Natasha Walter, author of Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism. "People see that we're at a bad point and they are always asking me, "How can I resist this for my son or my daughter?""

So how can we prevent gender-specific consumerism taking over? Jan Williams, a mother of two teens, a boy and a girl, ran a workshop at October's Feminism in London Conference, attended by more than 1,000 people. "You see it from the way children are pushed at school. 'You do like football, don't you?' 'You come over here and play with the dolls.'" There is a huge reaction from parents against this at the moment, she says, especially from parents who want to learn how to cope with incessant demands from the miniature consumers they live with, especially at Christmas. "It's as simple as the old drugs message. Just. Say. No. I meet a lot of parents who can't. But you have to be able to say no in a calm and peaceful way. Support their choices in the toys they really love. Or if you can't, let them save up their own money for them."